‘Dark days’ as drug traffickers executed in Indonesia

FOUR convicted drug traffickers have been put to death by firing squad after desperate families’ appeals for clemency were rejected.

AAPJuly 29, 201610:15am

Nusakambangan prison is where the drug executions were held. Picture: Ulet Ifansasti/GettySource:Getty Images

FOUR convicted drug traffickers have been put to death by firing squad after final and desperate appeals for clemency were rejected.

Families and advocates called for mercy after receiving notifications on Tuesday that their loved ones faced imminent execution.

Despite families calling on the Indonesian Government to “open your hear and forgive” four of the 14 drug convicts slated for executions were shot by a firing squad this morning as heavy rain fell at Nusakambangan island prison in Central Java.

Indonesian police stand guard at Wijayapura port, the entrance gate to Nusakambangan prison, ahead of a third round of drug executions which were carried out in Indonesia this morning. Picture: Ulet IfansastiSource:Getty Images

Known as the Alcatraz of Indonesia, it is the same place where Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed, along with six others, in April last year.

The other 10, including Indonesian woman Merry Utami, would face the death penalty at a later unspecified date, Noor Rachmad from the Attorney General Office said.

Tweeting after the executions, Community Legal Aid Institute’s LBH Masyarakat wrote: “We lost another client, another friend: Humphrey Jefferson. Another dark day for us ... very dark”.

The executions come despite emotional pleas from the prisoners, their families and lawyers for mercy.

The sister-in-law of Nigerian man Michael Titus Igweh wept yesterday as she described how her family were still fighting for a second judicial review into his case when they read on a news website that he would be executed.

Nila, a sister in law of Nigerian death row prisoner Michael Titus Igweh, leaves Wijayapura port after speaking to journalists ahead of a third round of drug executions in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia. Picture: Ulet IfansastiSource:Getty Images

“We ask for justice to the government of honourable (President Joko Widodo) Jokowi. He (my brother-in-law) is a human, not an animal. Open your conscience, your heart, open your eyes,” she told reporters outside the prison.

Meanwhile Sukumaran’s mother Raji Sukumaran penned a letter to the president earlier this week, writing: “Please don’t let these families go through what we have gone through”.

According to official procedure, death row prisoners are taken to a field where a firing squad stand between five to 10 metres away and wait for their commander to swing a sword, before aiming for the prisoner’s heart.

If the prisoner does not die immediately, an officer will shoot them in the head.

Describing the practice as “barbaric”, the UN said it marked a worrying trend with Indonesia which is the most “prolific executioner” in South East Asia, after ending a de facto moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in 2013.

Serious questions have also been raised about the legitimacy of the legal process that brought those to death row.

Nigerian man Humphrey “Jeff” Ejike, who was executed this morning, had always maintained his innocence.

He was allegedly held without access to a lawyer for five months after his arrest, did not have an interpreter at trial and was beaten during interrogations.

But Indonesia is showing no signs of backing down, saying the death penalty remained a valid legal avenue within the country trying to fight drugs.

An activist lights candles arranged around a poster containing the names of death row inmates who are facing imminent executions. Picture: Dita AlangkaraSource:AP